With USB drives becoming one of the most common ways to transfer and carry around your digital files, hackers have been successfully targeting them, and getting users and big companies to unknowingly spread malware.

The way that this malware works is that once installed on a computer, the virus or malware will immediately infects anything inserted into the computer. That means when you insert a USB drive into an infected computer, the viruses will automatically go onto the USB drive, and later, when inserted into a different computer, it will infect it as well. This is exactly how this type of malware spreads. They don’t call it a virus for nothing.

This is where the Internet security company, McAfee, comes into the picture to secure our USB drives. It signed a contract with two thirds of USB drive manufacturers to include a security software on their devices that will automatically scan the user’s computer for malware as soon as the USB drive is inserted. If malware is found, the anti-malware software will block any file transfers to the USB device, preventing it from being infected as well.

Considering that this is one of the top ways that malware is spread today, among both, individual users, and giant companies, this update to USB drives should drastically reduce the amount of infected computers, identity fraud, and cyber crime.

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About the author ⁄ BrickHouse Security

BrickHouse Security is the industry's premier supplier of security and surveillance solutions. As a recognized authority in GPS tracking, hidden cameras, employee monitoring and compliance, video surveillance and counter surveillance, we help our customers use technology to get the clarity they need. We proudly serve consumers, businesses of all sizes and the law enforcement community. When you need to know, BrickHouse has the answers.

Not a clear situation. McCafee is a software security company. If they secure USBs, which brand names? I am planning to buy some USBs. I just browsed Kingston DataTraveler, HP and SanDisk USBs on amazon. Not a word about McCafee enhancing those USBs. If they sell protected USBs, then the description should say so. May be, this information is so new, that it will show up on amazon soon.

allag

Not a clear situation. McCafee is a software security company. If they secure USBs, which brand names? I am planning to buy some USBs. I just browsed Kingston DataTraveler, HP and SanDisk USBs on amazon. Not a word about McCafee enhancing those USBs. If they sell protected USBs, then the description should say so. May be, this information is so new, that it will show up on amazon soon.

http://www.facebook.com/clifftheitguy Clifford Tan

This is probably similar to the way many of the old floppy disk viruses used to spread. Many people are using these devices to share large files that would take too long to transfer over the network or are too large for e-mail, and in regions where Internet cafes and booths are heavily used or more popular, users may store all their personal documents on a thumb drive and plug it into the public terminal to upload or download a file. This has already been a growing issue in 2008 when symantec reported and surprisingly not many av companies are stepping up to address this issue.

http://www.facebook.com/clifftheitguy Clifford Tan

This is probably similar to the way many of the old floppy disk viruses used to spread. Many people are using these devices to share large files that would take too long to transfer over the network or are too large for e-mail, and in regions where Internet cafes and booths are heavily used or more popular, users may store all their personal documents on a thumb drive and plug it into the public terminal to upload or download a file. This has already been a growing issue in 2008 when symantec reported and surprisingly not many av companies are stepping up to address this issue.